Book Review: The Audacity of Youth

Breaking Stride, by Stephen Paske

Breaking Stride will be appreciated by all runners who have ever given themselves over to a grand obsession, committed themselves fully to a goal, defied all moderation, foregone all comfort and ignored all calls of caution — as well as those who dream of doing so. Stephen Paske (who wrote the Bolivian Salt Flats article in this issue), draws on his experience as a runner to provide vivid descriptions of training and racing at the edge for a pair of high school cross country runners in MN.

I appreciated that Paske accurately focuses most on the off-season training, long before the final show-down race, providing heart-rate-raising descriptions of what it takes to elevate yourself to a champion, as well as unsugarcoated details of the effort and pain involved in high-level racing. While the book is laden with overwrought metaphors and the organization makes you wonder more than once who he is talking about now (intentionally, leading to a surprise ending), it is worth overlooking these flaws for the motivational energy you take away from the quick read.